The Hajj pilgrimage and surveillance for Middle East Respiratory syndrome coronavirus in pilgrims from African countries
- Alimuddin Zumla<SUP>1,2,3,4</SUP>,
- Peter Mwaba<SUP>2</SUP>,
- Matthew Bates<SUP>2,3</SUP>,
- Jaffar A. Al-Tawfiq<SUP>1,5</SUP>,
- Markus Maeurer<SUP>6</SUP> and
- Ziad A. Memish<SUP>1,*</SUP>
Article first published online: 18 APR 2014
DOI: 10.1111/tmi.12318
? 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
- MERS-CoV;
- Respiratory tract infections;
- Africa;
- Hajj;
- Screening;
- camels;
- coronavirus
It is well documented that mass gatherings attracting people from all over the world create an ideal environment for rapid transmission and spread of viral and bacterial respiratory infections (Abubakar
et al.
2012). Africa has a large Muslim population estimated at over 250 million (Government
2011). Every year, more than 1 million pilgrims from African countries travel to Makkah and Madinah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to join 10 million other pilgrims from around the globe to perform either the annual Hajj pilgrimage (Figure
1) or the Umrah, which can be performed at any time of the year (Memish
et al.
2014a). One of the major public health concerns related to these journeys is the importation on arrival, or exportation on departure, of a range of infectious diseases, some of which may have epidemic potential (Al Rabeeah
et al.
2012; Al-Tawfiq & Memish
2012). For example, Rift Valley fever from East Africa caused outbreaks in KSA and Yemen (Fagbo
2002), and there have been two important meningococcal disease outbreaks in KSA related to the Hajj (al-Gahtani
et al.
1995; Aguilera
et al.
2002).
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tmi.12318/full
